Lydia Delectorskaya

Behind The Pink Nude (1935) by Henri was both horrified and impressed. It was model. As a blonde ice princess, she was Matisse, there is the story of an the beginning of one of the most fruitful unlike anyone he had painted before. extraordinary life, not of Matisse, but of partnerships in art. Matisse impressed her as the first his model, muse, friend, personal Despite his sedate appearance in later painter she had met who did not try to get assistant and eventual carer, Lydia life, Matisse was a driven man, seething her into bed. As Hilary Spurling makes Delectorskaya. to paint. On marrying Amelie in 1900, he clear in her magnificent biography, She should have been a doctor, like her told her, ‘I love you dearly, mademoiselle, Matisse the Master ,1 Matisse was too father, a respected paediatrician in Tomsk but I shall always love painting more’. 1 He committed to painting to waste time and in , but he died of typhus and her began conventionally enough, as an energy having sex with his models. mother of cholera in 1922, leaving her an impoverished art student in , but For 4 years he painted nobody else. orphan at 12. Brought up by her aunt, and parted company with convention in 1905 She became indispensable, not only as leaving Russia to escape the revolution, with his Woman with the Hat and blazed a his model, but also his factotum, taking she was accepted for medical studies at trail of colour for the next 50 years. He charge of his studio and his affairs. Amelie the Sorbonne, but could not afford the courted neither celebrity nor critics and rose from her invalid bed, insisting ‘it’s me fees. was at the receiving end of a lifetime of or her’. Years later, Delectorskaya She married young, but the marriage hostility, rejection, misunderstanding, and reflected, ‘Madame wanted me to leave, lasted only a year and she moved to be abuse. Matisse competed mainly with not from female jealousy — there was no part of the Russian émigré community in himself and found painting stressful. He question of adultery — but because I was the south of France, trading on her looks was fortunate in having dedicated running the whole house’. 1 When Matisse as a film extra, dancer, and model. collectors who bought his work, although did sack her, Delectorskaya tried to shoot Delectorskaya had no money. After much of it went abroad and was not herself. After the marriage finally failed, 6 months of helping Matisse with his huge widely seen for decades. Matisse took her on again. mural The , she was given His wife Amelie supported him through Matisse was 40 years older. Hilary 500 francs by Matisse to make a new thick and thin, but by 1930, when Matisse Spurling says there is no evidence that start, but her partner blew the lot in one had achieved financial security, she had they had a sexual relationship and night at the Casino, and left. When already retreated into invalidism. Delectorskaya herself denied it. Matisse Matisse found out she was taking part in Delectorskaya was hired to look after her gave her a sense of power and purpose. dance marathons to repay the debt, he and 3 years later, Matisse asked her to Spurling interviewed Delectorskaya several times: , French, 1869-1954. Large Reclining Nude, 1935. Oil on canvas. 26 x 36 1/2 in. (66 x 92.7 cm.). The Baltimore Museum of Art: The Cone Collection, formed by Dr. Claribel Cone and Miss Etta Cone of Baltimore, Maryland BMA 1950.258. Photography By: Mitro Hood. ‘She could have run an army, she had amazing capacities. She ran the studio, she organised the models, she dealt with the dealers, sales people, the gallery … everything worked like clockwork.’ 1

From the cancer operation in 1941, This image is available in the print version which he was not expected to survive, until he died in 1954, Delectorskaya provided Matisse with the calm, support and comradeship that enabled him to continue at the top of his creative powers. Remembering her father, she likened Matisse to a doctor, totally absorbed in his work. Delectorskaya was his theatre sister. Without her, it is unlikely there would have been the brilliant flowering of his cut out shapes, for which he is now perhaps most remembered. Delectorskaya also coordinated the 4 years of preparation and installation that

626 British Journal of General Practice, August 2010 Essay Digest

Book review went into the exquisite chapel at Vence, OXFORD HANDBOOK OF age. This avoids having to look up different just outside , which he flooded with GENERAL PRACTICE: chapters and saves time. Care of the blue and yellow light. THIRD EDITION Elderly and Child Health chapters are not The relationship of Henri Matisse and CHANTAL SIMON, compromised however, remaining as Lydia Delectorskaya was hugely HAZEL EVERITT, AND extensive as in prior additions. productive but exclusive, especially of the FRANCOISE VAN DORP The symptoms and signs chapter has Matisse family, who never came to terms 2010, Oxford University Press, PB, been removed. This is replaced with a with her position. When he died, the day 1200 pages, £32.95, 9780199236107 short segment at the start of each chapter after making his last portrait of her, she which details symptoms and signs relevant left immediately, leaving the funeral to each system. This affords a more arrangements to them. streamlined layout. Although this part of her life was over, Finally, this edition retains its tendency to she lived as long again, dying aged 88 in be funny, wise, and have encouraging Paris in 1998. By then she had donated quotations dotted throughout its pages. the paintings Matisse had given her to the As a comfort blanket for the less Hermitage in St Petersburg and published experienced it remains unrivalled, but truly, two authoritative books on Matisse’s it is a must-have book for all. most productive years. Spurling describes this summer’s Faye McCleery exhibition at the Musée Matisse in Nice, ‘Lydia Delectorskaya was the beautiful, DOI: 10.3399/bjgp10X515269 blue-eyed blonde from Siberia who became Matissse’s model, muse and studio manager in the last two decades of In this digital age is the traditional his life, and the show includes all the reference book a thing of the past? Or can works he gave her, which she in turn it still be useful in modern day general presented to her Russian homeland. A practice? scintillating homage to an extraordinary The new edition of the Oxford Handbook woman.’ 2 of General Practice is a champion in the battle between hardback and hard drive. Graham Watt Its compact size makes it the perfect companion not only for the surgery but Exhibition also for house calls. The logical lay out and Lydia Delectorskaya, Matissse’s muse and referencing makes it as fast (if not at IT model. Musée Matisse, Nice. 18th June – 27th meltdown times, faster) than online September 2010. See www.musee-matisse- nice.org/ (details of the exhibition are on the resources. French language site only). It provides an up-to-date and comprehensive guide to current day REFERENCES general practice. New sections include 1. Spurling H. Matisse the Master: a life of Henri requirements for foundation level doctors Matisse, Volume Two: 1909 –1954 . London: Penguin Books, 2005. and details of the nMRCGP. There is also 2. Cripps C. Cultural Life: Hilary Spurling, writer. The a new ‘Healthy Living’ chapter which Independent 2010, 14 May : provides useful advice on tackling such http://www.independent.co.uk/arts- entertainment/books/features/cultural-life-hilary- hot topics as obesity, drug and alcohol spurling-writer-1972553.html (accessed 13 Jul 2010). abuse. Many conditions that affect all age groups may differ for children or the DOI: 10.3399/bjgp10X515250 elderly. A superb new feature is the highlight system for these instances. A box with a symbol for the elderly or children draws the reader’s attention to relevant differences for the extremes of

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